News!!

I had a foodie post all written and lined up for Tasty Tuesdays, (yes I know, I've been a slack bum in that department) but today it has to take a back seat because I have News!! (with two exclamation points!!)

First, guess who is walking!? It's funny, I know it's not like earth-shattering or anything, but the simple truth is that it is for us. We are currenty in the city again for a week so Georgie can see the allergy doctor and for Shane to do a course for a couple of days. Today we have spent all day out and Georgie has been the world's best baby while being carted around town all day, and then when we got back to the house, I just put Georgie down and she just started toddling around! She was laughing and thought she was just the cleverest thing out and Shane and I were just so happy and excited!

I'm so glad that she decided to wait until Shane has been able to be around, it would have been a bit sad if he'd missed it. It's like all of a sudden she's just decided 'Hey, I can walk!" and off she's gone. She's probably taken about thirty steps, and she falls down, but then just stands up again- her balance is so good and it's just so awesome to see! Not ground breaking... but really fantastic if you're her Mummy. I will post a photo some time soon.

The next bit of news relates to the egg allergy. We saw the specialist today and he was actually pretty nice (after we were warned that he wasn't exactly a 'people person'). He did the tests and she reacted to egg, but it's not very serious. Apparently up to 70% of children grow out of egg allergies and since hers isn't very severe, there's a good chance she could too. In the meantime we are to keep away from whole eggs, but should be right to start testing her out again on things that are cooked very well like cake and biscuits.We will go back and review it when she's two, or maybe two and a half. So that was really good news.

So there you have it. I'm sure I could write this post much more creatively, however I'm pretty knackered after a huge day. But I just wanted to share!

The day we learned that eggs are bad

On Saturday night I gave Georgie her first scrambled egg. She's had bits of egg before in quiche, cooking and toast soldiers dipped in the yolk. But apparently a whole egg was too much for her system because about 45 minutes later, after she'd gone to bed, she threw it all up.

I was a little worried, but more grumpy about cleaning up. Besides, she was quite chirpy and seemed fine. I googled egg allergies, and found that most of the time the reaction seemed to be immediate or delayed. I was a little concerned that it could affect airways, but Georgie's breathing was fine, so cleaned up and tired again, she went back to bed. I rang my Mum just so see what she thought and was advised just to keep a close eye on her.

That night Georgie was incredibly restless, I went in to check on her lots and she was breathing fine (albeit a little heavily) she did cough a lot, but she had been coughing a bit all day. I gave her panadol and lots of drinks of water. At that point I still wasn't 100% sure if it had been the egg or just a little bug, or maybe it was even the coughing that had caused her to be sick. I went to bed and checked on her a couple of times during the night but I wasn't too worried.

The next morning my alarm went off at 6:30am and I got up to get ready for church as I was doing music that Sunday morning. At 7:45am I was quite happy that I'd managed to get dressed and ready without waking Georgie. Again, I wasn't terribly worried as she normally sleeps in until seven or eight in the morning. When I went in to wake her up so I could take her to my Mum and Dad's before music practice I got an awful fright! She was hardly recognizable! Her little face was so puffy and red and swollen, she didn't even look like herself. She could hardly open her eyes and was very drowsy and not-herself. I panicked a bit and quickly rang my Mum and Pastor to let them know I was not going to music practice and was taking her to the hospital.

We rushed up to the hospital, all the while I was berating myself for never turning a light on in the night to see how she looked. I felt like the worst Mother in the world. At the hospital a nurse saw us straight away, but once she had determined Georgie was breathing okay she relaxed a bit and so did I. Within half an hour we had seen a Dr, who checked her thoroughly and said she was actually alright. She looked bad, but her airways were clear and so they weren't going to give her any medication as she was so little, but I was advised to keep a very close eye on her for the rest of the day. He said it was most likely caused by the egg. By this time Georgie had perked up and was looking for her breakfast so I felt a bit better as well.

We spent most of the morning at my Mum's, and Georgie ate breakfast and played. I was still a bit shattered. I kept a very close eye on her all day and the swelling in her face went down during the day, and she started being her usual happy self.

I was so, so relieved. I have never wished for Shane so much. That day was really tough, and putting her back to bed that night was so hard. I think it was the fact that it was all on me. I should have checked her better, I shouldn't have been so blase about the whole thing. It was a big reminder to me as a parent that things do happen. Children are not guaranteed to be okay all the time. Sometimes looking after a small person can be a terrifyingly huge responsibility.

She is fine today and I am going to go take her to our Doctor to talk about this a bit more and see what we should do, but I am just so, so thankful. Glad that she was still there in the morning, that she is still breathing now. I am so grateful to God that even though I wasn't on the ball, He was taking care of her. I am so glad that my little girl is still here and is okay.

My little trooper (this is almost 24 hours after eating the egg- still a bit puffy)